The human-dog relationship is perhaps the hardest to define in the 21st century. It’s so contentious and filled with so much noise that we don’t even know what to believe anymore.⁠ I get it that we want to be progressive and not think of our dogs as property hence we don’t want to be called an owner. I get it that we want to acknowledge our dogs as living, sentient beings.

I grew up with dogs and never once we treated them like property. But we did respect how they are wired. We recognised that they have needs different from us, humans.⁠

Every dog owner faces a point where we are frustrated because our training doesn’t yield us results. Here are 5 principles that I employ to keep me focused on what’s important.

In today’s dogmanship world, too many of us focus so much on being pawrents that we neglect the highly critical portion of raising a balanced dog. A balanced dog is a dog who is aware of its surroundings and is able to have maturity and life skills to navigate whatever situations it faces with its handler. And this includes anyone other than its family members.